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breakingnews: Palestine signs papers to join International Criminal Court The New York Times: President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has signed papers to join the International Criminal Court, a move that could lead to the prosecution of Israeli officials for war crimes. Follow more updates at Breaking News Photo: President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Fatah movement on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Getty Images)

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2014 Yearly Roundup Roundup

Yes, you read it right. I did not make a mistake here, this is a roundup of roundups in the topic of world affairs. I picked my favorites, I hope you’ll enjoy! The stories of 2014 A great picture walk through the stories of 2014 by Reuters.  2014 in Photos Another picture roundup. This one’s from the United Nations’ official Flickr. 2014: A look back at some of the year’s major developments The UN News Centre also made this great roundup of major developments of 2014. 7 awful conflicts that were under-reported in 2014 I try to feature those stories…

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UN Security Council action on Palestinian statehood blocked

UN Security Council action on Palestinian statehood blocked Falling short of the required number of positive votes and faced with a veto from one of its permanent members, the United Nations Security Council today failed to adopt a draft resolution that would have affirmed the “urgent need” to reach within 12 months a peaceful solution to the situation in the Middle East and would have paved the way to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday everybody, and welcome to the last Sunday Smack of 2014! This is going to be sort of a holiday edition, since most of my favorite bloggers were off this week too. I am still planning at least one end of the year post, but in the meantime, here’s what I’ve read this week. Thawing of US-Cuba Relations: What to Expect Next? A really great overview of what’s possible to come in the bilateral and international context of the new US-Cuba policy. Why 2015 Will Be a Huge Year for Humanity 2015 indeed will be a very exciting year for…

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Season’s Greetings

Wishing the happiest Christmas time to all my dear readers! Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday! Thank you all so much for following!

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Sunday Smack

Happy Holidays Everybody! And thank you so much for taking the time to read even on this last Sunday before Christmas! A lot of things happened in the world this week, partly sad, partly exciting (just like my life right now). Here’s what my favorite bloggers blogged about. The Sony Hack: Will the United States Take Countermeasures Against North Korea? And even more so, what kind of measures will they be? International law provides a series of possibilities. The ICC’s Rough December I have posted about these before too, but the ICC still seems to be having a hard time…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday Everybody! We are just about to start the last full week before Christmas. I hope your preparations are going well. It was a busy week in world affairs with a lot of great posts, of which I tried my best to choose from. Hope you’ll enjoy! Torture is Always Illegal, No Matter What Results It May Produce The CIA Torture Report is by far the most written about story of this past week. Just last week I wrote that in my belief there might be situtations when different laws should apply and I stand by this opinion. That…

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Why TIME Magazine Chose the Ebola Fighters as Person of the Year 2014

Why TIME Magazine Chose the Ebola Fighters as Person of the Year 2014 Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and “us” means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day. The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting,…

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Dear brothers and sisters, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t. Why is it that countries which we call “strong” are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult? As we are living in the modern age, the 21st century and we all believe that nothing is impossible. We can reach the moon and maybe soon will land on Mars. Then, in…

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Human Rights in the Changing and Radicalizing World

The Hungarian United Nations Association held its annual commemoration of Human Rights Day this Tuesday. The venue was provided by the Corvinus University of Budapest. Mr. Martin Nesirky, the Director of UNIS Vienna, former spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a great lecture with the above title. Mr. Nesirky first talked about current issues related to human rights around the world. He then briefly walked through the chapters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, illustrating the provisions with examples and often with stories of his travel with the Secretary General. He also mentioned and quoted the Secretary…

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